1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for meal planning. Still more particularly, the present invention is directed to a computer implemented method, an apparatus, and computer program product for generating policy driven meal plans based on a current inventory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, each member of a family frequently has their own unique diet policy. A diet policy is a set of dietary requirements/restrictions that make up a given diet. For example, the husband is an athlete trying to build muscle. Therefore, the husband will be on a high protein diet policy. The wife is on a doctor recommended low cholesterol and/or low sodium diet. The child is a diabetic and must adhere to a low sugar diet policy. In a family with multiple diverse diet policies such as this, meal planning and preparation can become incredibly complex. A user must determine one or more meals that will satisfy the combined diet policies' nutritional requirements and food restrictions for each family member. Frequently, a user will be forced to prepare multiple separate meals to satisfy the multiple diet policies due to the difficulties of coming up with a single meal to satisfy multiple diet policies.
Although users can consult diet/recipe books to obtain recipes to meet the requirements of a particular diet, a diet/recipe book will generally only provide recipes for a single diet policy. Manually searching for recipes that satisfy multiple different diet policies can be time consuming and burdensome.
In addition, preparing the meal(s) that satisfy multiple diverse diet policies can be difficult where a user is uncertain as to which ingredients are available in inventory, what amounts of those ingredients are available in inventory, and which ingredients need to be purchased/replaced. For example, refrigerators and cabinets are frequently overfilled with too many items. In such a case, a user may be unable to determine what ingredients are in inventory due to obscuring of one or more items behind multiple other items. In addition, empty or almost empty containers left in a refrigerator or cabinet can lead a user to believe that an ingredient, such as milk, is available in stock when in fact, there is an insufficient amount of that ingredient remaining to satisfy the measure requirements of a recipe.